Today, I began to explore a website called Voki. Voki allows
you to create speaking characters which works as a wonderful way to engage
students in a classroom. You can make your Voki look similar to you, or you can
create a variety of other animations to make lessons and activities even more
engaging. Creating your Voki is simple and fun. You choose the face structure that
you would like to begin with, and then have the ability to change the hair
style, hair color, eye color, skin color, mouth, and add simple tweaks to the
face structure. You also get to choose from a variety of clothing, glasses,
jewelry, and other accessories. After creating your Voki, you can then change
the background to a variety of scenes. Perhaps the best feature of Voki is that you
can choose to record your voice through your computer or cell phone, or you can
type a text that will speak through a computerized voice. In my below example,
I chose to use a male computerized voice for Jack, being that I am a female.
Jack the Snowman
One downside to Voki is that you cannot access all of the features without paying a monthly fee. As a result, you might be disappointed about not getting your face to look exactly like yours. Again, you can look at my example below.
Regardless of this minor issue with Voki, I think that it is
a great way to introduce a lesson, teach students about technology, or simply
to make the lesson more engaging and interactive. You can get your Voki into a
lesson for any subject. For math, you might have your Voki ask the math
question of the day for students to answer in their math journals. For science,
you can create your Voki to go over safety rules while students are working in
a lab setting. For Language Arts, your Voki can be the one that tells the
students their reading prompt for their daily journals. For Social Studies,
your Voki can introduce a video of the past or even tell the class the
centralized question for a particular unit. Voki is absolutely wonderful in
being that it makes learning much more engaging in the simplest of ways. Try
creating your very own Voki today!
I love using Voki as well. It is extremely fun to use and design. I love how it gives you so many options from the clothing to the background to the voice. I completely agree with you when you stated that using a Voki is a great way to introduce a lesson to a class. Using technology within a classroom setting is a must for today's generation and Voki is an engaging and creative way to interact with the students. I love how you put your picture next to your voki! FIREWORKS :)
ReplyDeleteI have yet to use a Voki but look forward to experiencing this source of technology. Creating a Voki is an excellent way to grab students' attention. If students do not pay close attention to directions, a Voki can be displayed on the SmartBoard or computer for students to listen to if they become lost during an assignment. This prevents the student from waiting for the teacher to help them and also decreases interruptions to the teacher when he or she is working with a student. Vokis can be used at Bloom's highest taxonomy level because they enable educators to propose problems to the class and deliver an assignment in a fresh way but students can also design their own Voki. It may be used as an introductory activity about the students themselves or it can be representative of a historical figure, author, writer, etc. The following URL will take you to an11-part instructional video about using Voki:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/voki/
While I have yet to dabble in Voki, I am completely sold in the ability this animation has in engaging students and grasping their attention! During your lessons in the second grade classroom, you and your group used two Vokis of Patrick Henry and Paul Revere. The two animations had a dialogue with each other and it clearly grabbed the attention of the entire class! They were thrilled to solve the question you posed because the Vokis invited them into their own world.
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